Can you find the irony?

An ironic observation struck me today. My blog name is A Mother's Hands. The explaination I provide for that title is sentimental.

I took a good look at my hands recently. They are almost always chapped due to the repeatitive washing. My hands are frequently being covered in some sort of sticky or greasy something. My fingertips are rough from all of the cleaning products that I use on a daily basis sanitizing and scrubbing the constant messes. I can't get my fingernails to grow even the slightest because they inevitably get ripped off. Finally, they are currently stained purple with beet juice. There is nothing sentimental about the way my hands look right now.

But, when my children fall these are the hands that pick them up. When they cry, it's my hands that wipe away the tears. It's my hands that they hold through parking lots and while crossing streets. I use my hands to clap and play with my children.

A mother's hands may not always look the best but they are the hands their children depend on. Even though my hands are not beautiful they do the most important work. They may not look sentimental but the work they do is.

I'm Back!!

Well, I'm giving this another try!
Who would think that a mother of three children could actually forget that she even has a blog!

The kids have grown quite a lot. Gabriel is almost 6. Eliana and Elijah are going to be 4 years old in 3 weeks. We are living in Enumclaw in a rental house. Through the 3 lay-offs of the past year and a half we lost our condo. It actually officially foreclosed last Friday. Ironically it's a relief that it is over. Kyle just started a new job on Monday. So far so good! We are praying that this company can actually keep him on for more than six months.

This is just an update blog before I really start updating more regularly.
You'll here from me soon!

Hurray!!

I finally fixed my sign in problem. When blogger switched to google I had to enter in my information again but I accidentally entered in the wrong email address. I couldn't sign into my account because it was the wrong address. I finally was able to fix it, hurray!!
So much has happened! The twins are almost two and Gabriel is almost 4!! I feel so old. We had to give in and buy a family van to get us all around. We tried to sell our condo but failed to sell it in this economy. :(
We are gearing up for the twin's birthday in May. This time of year is always very busy for us. Gabriel's birthday is only three weeks after that.
Kyle is really enjoying his job. (As much as one can enjoy work!) His company he is with is treating him very well. They seem to really value him as a worker and are glad he is with the company.
I am still an at home mom. I am currently looking into information on homeschooling. I am going to try to homeschool Gabriel for preschool and hopefully if all goes well continue to homeschool him throughout. I am really excited about this prospect it should be a lot of work but very fun.
Life has gotten much less hectic now that Eliana and Elijah are almost two. Thank goodness the bottle days are over. Now if we could just get them to eat with a spoon and fork we would be set. They are really starting to talk now which is really cute. Eliana's favoriet word is "ok" which I have discovered I say alot. Elijah's favorite word is "poo" what a boy thing to say! Gabriel is as smart as a whip. He always amazes me by the things he says and comes up with. The other day he reassured me that he would kill anyone who tried to hurt me. I assured him that it was a sweet gesture, a little violent but sweet.
I will try to post again in the future and hopefully post some pictures!

Life in the fast lane

Hard to believe it's already the middle of September. Time for me has been a strange time warp. It seems to have gone by very fast when I look at the big picture and yet very slowly in the day to day.
Kyle and I celebrated our fifth anniversary nearly two weeks ago. We had a children free night and went to the Puyallup fair. It was a lot of fun. Even though we were there on opening night there was hardly anyone there and the weather was gorgeous.
Eliana and Elijah continue to do really well. Elijah is a big hunk of a baby. He's not really chubby but he is very solid and heavy. Eliana is almost the exact opposite. She is really petite and hardly weighs anything, especially compared to her brother. They continue to eat well but thankfully are having longer stretches during the night. It is a lot of fun because they are starting to wake up more and interact. They both smiled and cooed for the first time a week ago today. That was amazing!
Gabriel is doing very well with the transition from life as a single child to being a big brother. He likes to be my little helper and will occasionally pat the babies' backs for me when I am feeding both of them. He does still of course have his moments. Right now he is really enjoying me laying down with him before he takes his nap. He lays next to me and talks to me about all kinds of things. Lately I have been telling him about God and Jesus. He thinks they are pretty cool dudes because I told him that they made tractors. He is still crazy over tractors. He actually remembers about a month ago when we went to Uncle Dan and Aunt Cheri's house and he got to see Uncle Dan use the orange tractor to move some rocks and dirt.
Life has been pretty good for Kyle and me. We are usually in need of a nap but never too tired. We have our concerns for our future, as do most parents: the usual financial, car and housing concerns. But, we know that God has taken care of us and will not abandon us. Our daily prayers are for our children that God has blessed us with, may we make him proud in the way we are teaching them and helping them grow.

Whew! What a summer!

We have had a summer to remember! I have not posted in a long time due to the fact that I went into early labor on May 23rd. Unfortunately I was unable to keep the twins inside of me and they were born at 11:22 and 11:23 pm on May 24th at just 29 weeks gestation! As you can imagine they were pretty small, Eliana weighing 2lbs. 14oz. and Elijah weighing 3lbs. 1oz. (Eliana was the first born.) They have spent 47 days in the hospital and just came home a week ago.
We have been staying at my parents house while I recovered from the c-section and we continue to stay with them for the extra help. We have to feed the twins every three hours. Due to the fact that they are still premature (just 37 weeks gestation today) we have to wake them up and they take a long time to eat. On average it takes an hour to feed, burp and change one of them. That is why I need the extra help. If I were to do it on my own it would take two hours, I would have an hour off and then I would have to start the process all over again.
I have to admit I am dreading the day that we go home and I take care of all three of my kids (yes that is still wierd to say) all by myself.
On a good note Kyle got a new job he started on July 2nd. Yes, that means he started a new job amidst all of the caos of going to and from the hospital. They seem to be treating him really well and he is enjoying it.
If anything I ask of people is to pray for us again in the subject of finances. We are going to have quite the hefty hospital bill and due to the fact that Eliana and Elijah were premature we have to buy this special expensive formula. Not to mention the regular cost of diapers and clothing for two babies.
We are eternally grateful to everyone who has helped us out and extremely happy to have the twins home. I will try to blog again and post some pictures.

More than half way there!

Life has been a whirl-wind since discovering that we are expecting twins. Soo many things to think about and I am already more than half way through the pregnancy. We had an ultra sound a few weeks ago and discovered that we are going to have a boy and a girl! This is absolutely perfect because my husband wanted more boys, of course, and I wanted at least one girl.
We are still living in our cozy little condo and have been preparing it for two new arrivals. We are going to have the twins in with us for a while until they sleep through the night. Then they will share a room with their big brother, Gabriel.
Gabriel is unfortunately going through a bit of the terrible two's. He has been fussy lately and seems to go from zero to sixty in no time. Meal time has been particularly difficult as it seems he does not want to eat anything yet still cries at the hunger pains. Kyle and I are dealing with it the best we can with the constant montra of "it won't last forever."
We received some difficult news lately pertaining to Kyle's job. We had hoped for a reasonable raise this year, especially with the twins coming and due to all of the extra time he has had to put in at work lately. Much to our disapointment Kyle did not receive a raise. I felt particularly bad for him because mostly due to my pregnancy I was unable to hold back my disapointment and balled my head off right in front of him. We have come to terms with it though. It will be a faith building exercise. In the midst of my crying I heard God very clearly telling me that everything would be just fine. He gave us everything we have, including blessing us with twins and he will provide. I am currently at an unexpecting point right now in that instead of being sad or unhappy about our financial situation I am actually very excited to see how God is going to work in our lives.
Kyle hopes to meet with his boss again in six monthes and discuss a possible raise then. I am praying that everything will work itself out. Hopefully in a years time we will fall into some kind of money as our sedan car currently has three car seats lined up in the back seat with no extra room. Once the twins make the transition from an infant car seat to regular ones it may not work.
Through it all I know that God is right beside us and guides our paths. For some reason we are to ride out this storm for the time being. Faith in knowing that he will take care of us is how I keep going.

Twice the Fun!

A lot has happened over the last six monthes. Gabriel is now nineteen monthes and growing like a weed. He has soo much energy! He is of course walking now. He unfortunately does not walk with us that well yet so it's still a lot of carrying. We are working in it!
We bought and moved into our first home. A condo at Lakeland Hills in Auburn. It is technically smaller than our former apartment but the layout is a lot better. It's exciting to have a place of our own!
We received some good news recently. I found out that I am pregnant in December. Due to the fact that I miscarried last March we waited to make a general announcement. I was having a hard time deciding on a doctor so I waited until I was 10 weeks to go to my first appointment. Surprisingly the doctor decided to do an ultrasound and discovered that I am having twins. ( I wondered why I was so sick and already starting to show!)
We are of course very excited! Our little condo will be very cozy. I am almost 13 weeks now so I think I am out of the major danger zone for a miscarriage.
It is amazing to me to see God at work. We recently started going to a new church where there are two families with twins. We don't know anyone else with twins. I even had a few dreams that I was having twins. I am completely at peace with the idea of having two babies. Some people ask me how am I going to handle it. It is rather simple really, God will provide. I'm not saying it won't be hard but I know that through God Kyle and I will have all the grace and finances we need.